Like an Oil Spill - Plastic - Never Goes away

​Plastic Packaging

PLASTIC DOES NOT FULLY DEGRADE & NEVER BIODEGRADES

Because it is disposable it doesn’t mean it goes away …My art practice reflects on the plastic waste of our consumerist society.I collect and use plastic waste found on beaches, streets and around my studios here or overseas, to create large monochromatic plastic installations.There is no away & There is NO planet B!Plastic makes its way into our environment and our waterways to end up into our seas.Plastic greatly impacts sea and bird life causing entanglement which restrict movement, feeding and cause starvation.Plastic contributes to polluting the ocean, as well as humans as it enters our food chain through fish ingesting micro-plastic (toxins and pollutants included) .My aim with my installations is to work towards giving a sense of the titanic problem we have in front of us all and not really take in.Plastic is one of our design that hasn’t been thought through. Humans have not foreseen the gigantic waste that our irrational plastic consumption is contributing to our environment. A consistent problem with human inventions.Plastic spreads far and wide around the globe and is cause for our immediate action worldwide.Our daily actions is crucial towards a better futureSo let’s take action:-Minimize any plastic manufacturing to life saving equipment-Minimize your plastic use-Reprogram our human habits to buy, use and waste less

Facts on Plastic-we Buy-we Bury-we Burn - together WE POLLUTEAdvances, is the first global analysis of all plastics ever made—and their fate. Of the 8.3 billion metric tons that has been produced since the 1950s', 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. Of that, only 9 percent has been recycled and 12 percent has been incinerated so the vast majority—79 percent—is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter. Meaning: at some point, much of it ends up in the oceans, the final sink.

-165 million tonnes of plastic debris is floating in the oceans-20 millions tons dumped into our seas every year = 1 garbage truck of plastic dumped per minute in our seas-by 2025 = 1 ton of plastic for 3 tons of fish-by 2050 = 12 billion metric tons so there will be more plastic then fish (by weight) in our oceans warned the United Nations-by 2050 humans we will have taken 1 century to produce 40 billion tons of plastic-51 trillions plastic particles -weighing 250,000 tons are estimated to be swirling in the seaSince 2000 we have produced the most plastic ever so more then the 50 years before and since its induction

The rapid acceleration of plastic manufacturing, which so far has doubled roughly every 15 years, has outpaced nearly every other man-made material.-we produce over 300 millions tons of plastic waste per yearthat is 40kg of new plastic for each of us per yearMost part of that 40kg we use for less then 12 minutes

Half the resins and fibers used in plastics were produced in the last 13 years. China alone accounts for 28 percent of global resin and 68 percent of polyester and acrylic fibers (polyacrylamide).Much of the growth in plastic production has been the increased use of plastic packaging, which accounts for more than 40 percent of non-fiber plastic.-can take up to 1000 years to break fully which doesn't mean it disappears totally-is made of Oil a natural resource-is made of chemicals-leeches chemical which contaminates our waters (rivers/oceans/tap water)-attracts toxic molecules or toxins-micro-beads are covered with pollutants

Plankton eats plastic then fish eat plankton. The toxins are stored in the fish fatty tissues and plastic is find in fish guts. Plastic has created a global pollution problem not only on land but on marine life. Birds feed on plastic that smells like krill when coated in algae, they also feed their chick who then die of starvation. Plastic entangles sea creatures in water and land.There is endless tide of floating garbage in our seas.In the depth or our seas, it also gets gathers and creates little island of junk as this poisonous waste gets tangled with other objects.The result is endless it is millions of plastic debris that breaks Up to make trillions of micro-plastic. Plastic is broken by the elements and resemble a minestrone soup or a smog on the surface of our oceans. This plastic is eaten by plankton, fish and by many other marine animals.Rivers in the environment acts as a conveyor belt for plastic waste which ends in ocean gyres and in the deepest tranches in seas around the planet.

Bad for humans and oceansSome 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced each year around the world, and the majority of those — the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project clocks the number at 4.96 trillion — have filters made of cellulose acetate. Cellulose acetate can take a decade or longer to break down under ultraviolet light, which in turn disperses the toxic plastic into smaller bits.Filters increase the presence of plastics in our environment. For the last 32 years, cigarette butts have been the most commonly found item (60 million collected) during the Ocean Conservancy's annual international coastal cleanup project; they accounted for 2.4 million of the items found on global beaches during the 2017 clean-up. (By comparison, 644,000 plastic straws were found last year.) Researcher have found that cigarette filters in 70% of seabirds and 30% of sea turtles.

Al the information above has been gleaned from various books, documentaries and articles on Plastic listed in the research and interest section on this website

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